A little wisdom for young adults entering the workplace.

I want to relay what I think is wisdom for young adults who are new or recently new to the workplace. Some of you may disagree with me here and that’s ok. This wisdom is sourced from many- a sort of “wisdom cocktail”.? It comes from my Dad, mentors I have had over the years, The Bible, and countless others.?

First, I want to offer some praise. Your generation has so many wonderful attributes. Y'all see through the Big Corporate and Big government corruption that plagues our nation and you call it out for what it is. You also don’t measure success based on money or titles. Good things that you continue to teach my generation. And we are listening.?

Now for the wisdom - while your generation has some great attributes, you have some blind spots to overcome, probably created by the helicopter parenting from my generation. Y’all had it easy coming up. Got trophies when you lost and lacked for nothing. You were rewarded for just showing up. You feel you are entitled.?Yes, you do.

As a result, you want your careers or jobs to look like your childhoods. You want your dream job now, a big salary now, an income that can afford you a nice house now, and you don’t want to have to work very hard for it. You want to be rewarded for just showing up. You see your parents and other’s parents and say, “I just want what they have”, not understanding that it took most of them two decades of hard work before the necessity of buying new car tires didn't create a major financial crisis in the family.?

Here is the advice - you will not get the perfect job or anything quite like it for a while. Why? Because you have not proved yourself to be valuable to employers yet. Your college degree is just a prerequisite and means nothing more than that. This means you will need to take a job that is less than perfect and move your way up a bit at a time. It means doing an outstanding job in any role you are hired to do. If you do a wonderful job at the $15/ hour role, you’ll get a promotion to the $25/hour role. Then if you do a great job at that, you’ll get promoted to the $100,000 plus regional manager role, and so on. Eventually you’ll wake up and realize you are financially quite comfortable. Think of your career as “stepping-stones” and not “one big leap across the stream”. The bottom line - you’ll have to do the jobs you don’t want to for a while to get to the jobs you really want. And while you want to blame the government, Wall Street, or corporate bull$&@&, this notion has been true forever - not a new thing. Old as time. Not new to your generation. Sorry, but letting woke society make you into a victim is not helping you. (Does not mean we shouldn’t strive for positive change, of course).?

I know what you are saying now - “But I was told if I followed my passions, I could make a living and never work a day in my life.” ?This is a lie for 99% of us. If it were really true there would be 10 million professional golfers, 20 million NBA players, and 100 million professional hunters and fishing people in the US today. Nothing wrong with chasing a dream as long as you realize a small percent of people get to do what they are really passionate about for a living. Eventually we all have to grow up and face reality if we want to be happy.?

Instead, most of us, including myself, had to get busy making a living. Then we gradually became very good at what we were doing and started to realize over time that it’s very rewarding to see the results of our high level of expertise. And this kind of success fuels our passions. Yes, it affords me to be able to play lots of golf.?

Most of us Gen X folks, and those crazy boomers you love to poke fun at, sort of found ourselves in our current careers by happenstance. For example, there is no way after receiving a degree in economics from a respected university that I thought I’d eventually find myself in the commercial construction industry feeling very fulfilled and grateful. It was about taking an opportunity and making something out of it through hard work and learning. And it did not happen overnight.?

So in conclusion, look for an opportunity that looks like this - supervisors who are kind people with solid character, a field that is growing so you can grow with it, a company that will mentor and give you learning opportunities, and while it might not be your passion, pick something that's at least interesting to you that you will “not hate”. Now, work your tail off and become an expert at what you do. It will pay off - eventually.?

And as a side note, this advice also applies for those who would one day like to be self-employed. First, you must “work for the man” so you can learn how “the man” does it, and how you can improve upon it. This takes time - no shortcuts. I am now self-employed going on 5 great years and love it. If I would have tried to go out on my own?5 years earlier, I am certain I would not have been ready.

Hope this helps someone. Stepping off my soapbox now.??